Instant messaging systems and social networks enabled by Internet technologies are well known in prior art. They allow individuals to form groups and share information within the group.
US patent application 20070005750 teaches a system and method for managing connections in an online social network. An online social network of the disclosure collects descriptive data about various individuals and allows those individuals to indicate other individuals with whom they have a personal relationship.
PCT publication WO06135798 discloses a method and system for personal notification and broadcasting. It teaches a solution for contacting a plurality of contacts in emergency and non-emergency contexts. The system receives a call from a caller attempting to reach the plurality of contacts. The system compares an identifier associated with the caller to identifiers stored in a database to authenticate identity of the caller. Responsive to a positive authentication of the identity of the caller, the system identifies which contacts on a contact list to be reached based on information provided by the caller.
PCT publication WO06116020 discloses a presence monitoring method and system in a serverless peer-to-peer system. The system of the disclosure may transmit to other computing systems associated with other entities information regarding presence information associated with a user entity. The system may request of other computing systems associated with other entities information regarding presence information associated with the other entities. Presence information of the disclosure may generally indicate the willingness and/or ability of an entity to communicate and/or collaborate with other entities, for example.
PCT publication WO06115524 teaches a computer implemented method and system for enabling users to create a social network providing access to other users. By providing access to such networks via a visual presentation, the system renders content available for access by other network members. Access is sometimes provided through propagation of metadata or other uniquely identifying indicia associated with the social network to all or at least certain other network members.
U.S. patent application US20060240856 discloses a system and method that facilitates group-based mobile communication around external feed content is provided. The system and method involve adding external feed content to content generated within a group. According to the disclosure, both types of content can be viewed on the mobile devices of the group. Updates to the feed content can be obtained and communicated to the group. When multiple feeds are subscribed to by a group, one or more group members can display such feed content in a selective manner. Group members can also employ display filters to restrict feed content displayed on their mobile devices. Users can also search for available feeds and form new groups around such content or join an existing group.
U.S. patent application US20060277467 provides a method, a computer program product and device for generating a dream-like multimedia presentation, which can be displayed on a mobile terminal, or other digital device, based at least in part on contextual information relating to the mobile terminal and the mobile terminal user. The presentation provides the user with a snapshot of information that appears to be more important to the user at a given period of time, as well as information that may have been forgotten by the user over time, and does so in a manner that is somehow reflective of the user's presumed mood.
PCT publication WO06133345 discloses a system and method for providing non-requested content to a mobile terminal based on characteristics of, and tracked usage of the mobile terminal to request content through an online portal service, which provides access to content in multiple subject areas.
Social networks may also be mobile, i.e. their data and services may be made accessible through mobile terminals, e.g. cell phones, and other terminals that have more limited user interface resources and usability than e.g. desktop computers. The limited interface resources, such as small screen size, and limited usability make the use of social networks different. In desktop terminals it is feasible to browse through large volumes of data and use e.g. search functionality to find relevant data. On the other hand, in mobile terminals the amount of data brought to the terminal is critical. Also using search features that are commonplace in desktop environments is not usually feasible in the mobile terminal as the keyboard and pointing devices of the mobile terminal are less user-friendly than their desktop counterparties. For these reasons, only data that is relevant to the user should be provided in the user interface of the terminal and even the relevant data should be ordered according to the estimated importance of the data. A method and system for determining the order of relevance of data of a messaging system such as a mobile social network is therefore needed.